The final season of Game of Thrones, and especially the last 3 episodes, have divided and angered many fans of the show. But why? Well, there are a number of reasons for this, so let’s break down the biggest and most recent problem first - Daenerys.

In last night’s episode, Daenerys and Drogon rain fire down upon King’s Landing, killing thousands of innocents. This is all after Cersei’s armies have surrendered. Now the show’s writers justify this by claiming it’s the Mad King storyline coming full circle with his daughter. And, if the show had more episodes and time to develop this extreme choice, it could have made more sense. But we’re only given 6 episodes this season, as opposed to the usual 10, and the decision to make Daenerys the “Mad Queen” seems rushed and hasty.

Throughout the seasons, we’ve seen Daenerys promise she’s nothing like her father, as she’s freed slaves and ruled mostly benevolently. So last night’s episode largely felt like a betrayal to both fans and her very character. An entire city going up in flames makes for a great visual, sure, but narratively it’s questionable. Now it appears Daenerys is the show’s “Big Bad,” and not Cersei.

And that’s another big problem - Cersei and her fate. Fans were out for blood and wanted a gruesome end for the cold-hearted tyrant. But instead of getting a knife in the heart (like many predicted), she fell victim to rubble. Now one could argue that Daenerys ultimately killed Cersei...but her end still seems somewhat anticlimactic. And that doesn't even begin to address Jaime's problem.

Jaime's redemption arc - where'd it go?! The Lannister most changed from a character standpoint after years of questioning his actions and his loyalty to his lover went back to his old ways all too quickly. In the previous episode, after leaving Brienne, fans had hoped he was on his way to King's Landing just to finish Cersei off himself. But this latest episode proved - NOPE! - he just wanted one last cuddle with his sister-lover. Hm.

In conclusion, we only have 1 episode left, and frankly I’m excited to see where this all goes.

Stop with the Avatar comparison.... Comparing 2019 dollars to 2009 dollars is dumber than the writing in season 8. End Game isn't the second highest grossing movie of all time, it's 5th: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films#Highest-grossing_films_adjusted_for_inflation $1.1B behind gone with the wind.

Also, As a sickly devoted GoT TV show fan, and as someone who watched the series finales of some of the other great shows and dramas of the modern era, I can honestly say that some GoT fans are seriously overreacting. This was not the worst finale. I think this one hurt the most, mainly because this show was more popular than the others, especially at the time of its finale. People forget that the Sopranos popularity (and show quality) peaked in Season 4. Seasons 5 & 6, with Phil Leotardo as the main baddie, was slightly less interesting. And, if people remember correctly, David Chase pulled a D&D and broke Season 6 into 2 parts instead of just doing a full Season 6 & 7. Also, Tony defeated Phil prior to the show's ending, so people got what they wanted their. The ending was unexpected and disliked, but at least people know Tony won. Lost was terrible its last few seasons, went on 2 long, and people just hoped that by ending it, the showrunners could do a good ending. They were wrong. Seinfeld fell off the last 2 seasons because Larry David left, and his return for the finale seemed out of place. The Wire's 4th season may have been the greatest season of TV in TV history, but the 5th season with the newspaper angle seemed forced (and the theme for the 5th season was horrible, as compared to the 4th season, which I have on a loop because it was so funky). Plus, the Wire was never a ratings darling, so very few people were there to watch it and be disappointed. GoT, on the other hand, increased in popularity and was still good, up until S8E4 and E5. The height was greater than the other shows, so the fall was bound to be worse. So, it feels worse, but in fairness I dont believe it was. In time, we'll look at the ending for GoT as underwhelming: what we will remember is the needlessly abbreviated last 2 seasons, the shockingly bad mistakes (lighting, coffe cups, water bottles), and the feeling that D&D bailed out early to get on to other things. I hope HBO and GRRM have learned a lesson here and will force the next GoT prequel showrrunner(s) to commit to finishing what they start. If you are doing 10 episodes a year, DO 10 EPISODES A YEAR!!!

Isn't it funny that the guy who wrote the best episode of Season 8--Bryan Cogman, Episode 2, Knight of the 7 Kingdoms--was not retained by HBO, and has since joined Amazon and their Lord of the Rings TV adaptation. Bryan primarily left HBO because they decided not to pickup the GoT prequel that he was heading. Just find that odd. In retrospect, D&D should have let Bryan write all of Season 8, based on the episode he wrote.